Recommendations for Better IT Management at State Department Still Unaddressed

The Department of State has failed to comply with longstanding recommendations from its inspector general’s office regarding how it can better manage its information technology portfolio.

The issues date back to 2016 when the IG called out the State Department, particularly the Bureau of Information Resource Management, for not aligning IT investments with the defined process set by the Office of Management and Budget, Nextgov reported Thursday.

In its new audit, the watchdog noted that IRM was still unable to take sufficient corrective actions to develop and implement a process to avoid duplicative investments and review bureau-specific IT investment methodologies.

Additionally, the IG said that while officials heeded prior recommendations for reviewing IT portfolio reorganizations, comparing requests for new IT investments and approving bureau-funded IT contracts, further improvements are needed. 

The lack of follow-through prompted the watchdog to close those recommendations and reissue them instead. IRM must now conduct an in-depth review of the entire agency IT portfolio, strategize a way to combine, eliminate or replace the duplicative systems and implement a methodology for identifying requisitions.

According to the audit, leaving the recommendations unaddressed will hinder the IRM from fully identifying duplicative systems and related cost-savings opportunities, optimizing IT investments or promoting shared services.

Positives were also highlighted in the report. IRM was lauded for developing and implementing policy and additional guidance for recording details of IT investments in iMatrix, the department’s IT investment tracking system.